How Long Does It Take to Make a Friend?
By Kira M. Newman | May 25, 2018
How Reading Fiction Can Shape Our Real Lives
A novel changed the life of Francesca Lo Basso—and there’s scientific evidence that she’s not alone.
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How Schools Are Meeting Social-Emotional Needs During the Pandemic
By Frances Messano, Jason Atwood, Stacey Childress | September 22, 2020
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How Reading Fiction Can Shape Our Real Lives
By Francesca Lo Basso | September 21, 2020
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Do Americans Have to Like Each Other to Cooperate?
By Francesca Polletta | September 17, 2020
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How Teens Are Making Meaning Out of the Pandemic
By Michael T. Warren | September 16, 2020
Keys to Well-Being
Purpose
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To psychologists, purpose is an abiding intention to achieve a long-term goal that is both personally meaningful and makes a positive mark on…
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How Teens Are Making Meaning Out of the Pandemic
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Bridging Differences
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Americans are increasingly divided along social and political lines. The evidence for this polarization can be found in our most intimate…
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How Reading Fiction Can Shape Our Real Lives
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Social Capital Quiz
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Compassion
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Compassion literally means “to suffer together.” Among emotion researchers, it is defined as the feeling that arises when you are…
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Your Happiness Calendar for September 2020
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Compassionate Love Quiz
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Gratitude
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Robert Emmons, perhaps the world’s leading scientific expert on gratitude, argues that gratitude has two key components, which he describes…
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Your Happiness Calendar for September 2020
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Mindfulness
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Mindfulness means maintaining a moment-by-moment awareness of our thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, and surrounding environment, through…
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Three Ways to Help Your Kids Succeed at Distance Learning
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Diversity
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For the Greater Good Science Center, “diversity” refers to both an obvious fact of human life—namely, that there are many different…
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Do Americans Have to Like Each Other to Cooperate?
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Awe
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Awe is the feeling we get in the presence of something vast that challenges our understanding of the world, like looking up at millions of…
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Seven Ways to Find Your Purpose in Life
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Awe Quiz
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Social Connection
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When researchers refer to the concept of social connection, they mean the feeling that you belong to a group and generally feel close to…
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Being Selfish Won’t Help Your Career
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Social Capital Quiz
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Happiness
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Most of us probably don’t believe we need a formal definition of happiness; we know it when we feel it, and we often use the term to…
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Do This in the Afternoon for a Better Workday
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Happiness at Work
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Forgiveness
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Psychologists generally define forgiveness as a conscious, deliberate decision to release feelings of resentment or vengeance toward a person…
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Dear Christine: How Can Divorced Parents Get on the Same Page During COVID-19?
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Empathy
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The term “empathy” is used to describe a wide range of experiences. Emotion researchers generally define empathy as the ability to sense…
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How Reading Fiction Can Shape Our Real Lives
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Empathy Quiz
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Altruism
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Altruism is when we act to promote someone else’s welfare, even at a risk or cost to ourselves. Though some believe that humans are…
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How Teens Are Making Meaning Out of the Pandemic
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Quote of the Day
“Like happiness, purpose is not a destination, but a journey and a practice. That means it’s accessible at any age, if we’re willing to explore what matters to us and what kind of person we want to be—and act to become that person.”― How Purpose Changes Across Your Lifetime, by Kira M. Newman